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History of The Black Church Resource Group

God implanted into the spirit of Alphonse D. Matthews long ago that the answers to the socio-economic problems that exist with The African American community are within the African American church. The answers to unemployment, wealth creation, education, poverty, drug abuse all are within the walls of the African American church.

God spoke this into his spirit: “I birthed the African American church during slavery, and then I gave the people Emancipation. I sheltered and comforted the people within the walls of this church during a period of civil unrest and injustice, and then I gave the people the Civil Rights Movement. Now, I have positioned the African American church as the epicenter of economics for the African American people. It is through economics that I will yet again heal the land, and give the people Economic Empowerment.”

It was from that leading that he and his wife launched DFM Enterprises in 1998, a software development company with a special mission focus to empower the African American church through software tools and technology. DFM Enterprises launched a few initiatives, none of which had any impactful successes, or successes at all depending on your perspective. However DFM Enterprises was a honing ground for their skills in the area of Internet software development.

In the year 2000, God spoke into Alphonse’s spirit: “Create a web site that will allow any persons across this nation to find any African American church that they choose, and call it “The Black Church Page”. His immediate reaction was that is “politically incorrect” can we call it something else. His response was: “No, call it ‘The Black Church Page’”.

And so it was, armed with only a vision of a Church Locator and a politically incorrect name, they began development of the web site in the year 2000. In response to thier obedience, God led them to bring on E. Anthony Preston as a full partner within this effort. Immediately thereafter the full scope, breadth, and depth of what God was doing began to reveal itself. The Black Church Page web site was launched in February 2002. The immediate response confirmed that this was more than a Church Locator; this is a voice of a people. We began to see that through the Internet we can not only find the churches but the churches can find each other, not physically, but find the heart of the community which is the church itself. Our problems do not stop at denominational lines. There are issues common to all of us, and there needed to be an entity that can bring us all together and attack those problems on a national level.

As such, The Black Church Resource Group, Ltd. was formed in the State of Ohio. The original members of the company, Alphonse D. Matthews, Felicia M. Matthews and E. Anthony Preston, were unsure at that time as to what direction would be taken but wanted to at a minimum have an official entity in place to operate as a legal business entity. As the company vision and mission became clearer, because most of the structured programs would be designed to operate within and service churches, it was realized that the company would be more of a service to the Black church community rather than a company for profit. Therefore, the members of The Black Church Resource Group, Ltd. agreed to dissolve the company and form The Black Church Resource Group, Inc.